Today, the House will vote on a rule that prohibit an amendment by Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-21) to H.R. 444 to preserve Social Security’s independence from politically-charged budget battles in Congress. H.R. 444, “The Require a Plan Act” is radical not just because it requires the President to submit a balanced budget for 2014, a metric not even achieved by the Republican-revered Ryan budget that privatizes Medicare. By including the seemingly innocuous phrase “unified budget,” in H.R. 444, House Republicans in actuality submit Social Security – which operates off budget with its own independent revenue stream – into the general budget that Congress wrangles over each and every year.

“The precise reason that Social Security was created with an independent revenue stream was to protect the benefits of current and future retirees from the politically-charged shenanigans of Congresses like this one,” said Congressman Deutch. “Putting Social Security on the ledger of the general budget just as the largest generation of Americans in our history enters retirement is a blatant attempt to absolve this Congress of the responsibility of addressing the real drivers of our budget deficit. Retirees and disabled Americans had nothing to do with the policies that exploded our deficit under Republicans’ watch - which include huge tax cuts for the wealthy, two wars that were never paid for, and a government that condoned irresponsibility on Wall Street that sank our economy into a sea of red ink.”